health systems, monitoring, evaluation, learning.

Month: October 2017

rally Thanks to dissertation-writing procrastination a few years ago, I watched all eight series of Foyle’s War in a somewhat absurdly short amount of time. This, perhaps embarrassingly, is how I became familiar with WWII (and probably WWI) slang, such as calling Americans ‘Tommies’ and Germans ‘Jerries’ (the reasons behind German nickname are a point of speculation). Perhaps this was not the best way to learn about military history. But.

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This led me to take a second look at jerrycans a new way on my most recent trip to sub-Saharan Africa (specifically in Lusaka). Might these containers be named after Germans? (Short answer: yes.) Might they be engineering marvels with deep historical importance that i had never appreciated before? (Short answer: also yes.)

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Perhaps ‘jerrycan’ is a word lots of you folks were already using for water containers and had already thought deeply about — but it is a word with which i became familiar only in Ghana, where the colorful containers are ubiquitous (this picture is actually from my recent trip to Zambia; the yellow can is the one i am talking about).

Mtendere, Lusaka 2017

i associate the term with being used in Africa, being plastic, and with carrying water (as here). But the plastic containers are premised on a (revolutionary) German, pressed-steel, fuel-carrying model from 1937, nicknamed jerrycans by Allied troops. The originals were designed under secretive conditions to carry 20 liters, not require a funnel to fill or a wrench to unscrew, to be stackable, and — strengthened and made flexible by their X-shaped indentation — be durable beyond a single use. Evidently, Hitler already had thousands of these containers (Wehrmachtskanister) stockpiled by 1939.

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While i think of jerrycans as being carried on the head (here’s a picture of a woman carrying 20 (!) this way), the design was intended to allow a soldier to carry two full or four empty cans – evidently quite an improvement on existing models (read here on “epic ergonomic failure”). The plastic version made a 1970 debut thanks to a Finnish engineer. They became commercially available shortly thereafter. In places like Africa (yes, broadly), they have provided a useful alternative to clay or metal pots for collecting and storing water and they are often a mainstay of NATO and UN efforts.

Meanwhile, the British apparently first saw the German design in April 1940 in Norway and realized it was superior to their thin tin or mild-steel ‘flimsies,’ which leaked and often only endured a single use (at least as a carrying device; much is made online of their being turned into Benghazi Burners).